A veteran police officer facing Police Act charges over allegations he attempted to cover up the beating of a Windsor doctor by another cop announced Thursday he is retiring.

Det. Kent McMillan dropped the news as the hearing into the case concluded its eighth day. It is not scheduled to resume until June 3.

McMillan,59, indicated the past three years of dealing with the fallout since David Van Buskirk attacked Dr. Tyceer Abouhassan has been an ordeal that has taken too much of a toll on him.

McMillan and Staff Sgt. Paul Bridgeman were charged under the Police Act with discreditable conduct for allegedly trying to cover up Van Buskirk’s attack by wrongfully pursuing assault charges against Abouhassan.

Bridgeman also faces a Police Act charge of neglect of duty, while McMillan had been charged with deceit.

With his pending retirement the charges against McMillan will be dropped, but the case against Bridgemen will continue, prosecutors said.

The detective, now in his 27th year on the job, wanted to remain on active duty until seeing his name cleared, but putting off his retirement until at least June — and likely several more months beyond that in order to see the hearing concluded — was no longer worth the toll on his personal life and health, he said.

“My wife and I have talked about this for years and it’s time,” McMillan said. ” It’s been three years and I couldn’t hang in any more and it’s time to move on. I looked 10 years younger three years ago.

“I would like to have stayed until being exonerated, but it’s time to go.”

McMillan will retire April 30.

The news overshadowed Thursday’s testimony.

A Chrysler truck driver testified that he watched Van Buskirk “built like a body builder” make a “beeline” toward a skinny man and throw numerous punches to the head, even when the victim appeared “out cold” on the ground.

Glenn Price said he was sitting in his vehicle in the parking lot waiting to go in for a doctor’s appointment at the Jackson Park Health Centre when Van Buskirk walked briskly past him toward Abouhassan.

“I wasn’t paying too much attention, but then (the officer) grabbed him,” Price said. “The doctor tried to get away from him, and that’s when the officer hit him in the face, in the eye.

“As he went down the officer held him with his left hand while hitting him with his right. His knee was on his chest and he hit him a few more times.”

Price, a burly man himself, said he jumped out of his vehicle and yelled “he’s had enough, let him go.”

It was then Van Buskirk identified himself as a police officer.

He flashed something and said ‘it’s OK I’m a cop,'” Price said.

It was not until he read about the attack in The Star in the following days that he felt compelled to call police to provide his own statement.

Lawyer Tony Barile, who represented Abouhassan, said he spoke with McMillan and Bridgeman days after the incident.

He requested a copy of the health centre’s surveillance tape which was in police possession. Three days after the incident, Barile said he was taken into a small room in the police station where McMillan showed him a short clip of the video.

“It focused on the initial contact; I was not able to view the full tape,” Barile testified. “Det. McMillan was pointing at the screen with a pen how Abouhassan was waving his arm in a threatening manner (toward Van Buskirk).”

McMillan replayed the video clip a few times, Barile said.

“I didn’t agree with what he was saying,” Barile said. “My view was different than Det. McMillan. I expressed that Dr. Abouhassan did absolutely nothing to precipitate what happened.”

The lawyer believed McMillan was leading the investigation and wasn’t clear on the role of Bridgeman, he testified.

Following that meeting, Barile met with his client and decided there was no point in the doctor providing any statement to police because “it was futile,” he said.

“The nature of the police report and what they were saying was already condemning my client,” Barile said. “I saw no benefit to providing a statement to try and show the facts.”

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